Like a Hippopotamus

My father (that young Navy Ensign in the photo) used to tell a joke about how God assigned Adam the task of naming all the animals in the Garden of Eden. When Adam had finished his assignment, God asked him why he named a certain animal “hippopotamus.” Adam shrugged and answered, “It looked like a hippopotamus.”

If you’re lucky, your organization “looks like” its name. It tells the world what you do, who it’s about, and why it is there. Some organizations aren’t so lucky. Perhaps there have been fundamental changes over the years. Perhaps the name is no longer accurate or clear. Perhaps the organization’s leaders want to improve public perception and ensure people better understood what the historic museum or site is all about. For these organizations, it may be time to rebrand.

The idea for this book came from my experience running a small historic house museum in New Jersey. In 2014, we made a major change to the interpretation of one of our houses. For close to 50 years, it told the story of a white, founding father in the community. We reinterpreted the house to include its history as a segregated YWCA for African American women and girls in the first half of the 20th century. It changed the essence of our organization.

Two years later, we were considering a change from the Montclair Historical Society to the Montclair History Center. I attended a workshop on rebranding at the American Association of State and Local History in 2014, but the three organizations that presented had rebranding budgets that dwarfed my organization’s annual operating budget. Because I had spent years in marketing in the healthcare industry before making the move to the Montclair History Center, I understood their experiences were valuable. More important, I knew they were scalable.

In Rebranding: A Guide for Historic Houses, Museums, Sites, and Organizations, I share the stories of 13 organizations — big and small — that took the leap and rebranded.